Internet Explorer 8 RC is out, but not for Windows 7?

While IE8 RC 1 is available to everyone in general, the people who are more likely to try out the latest and greatest software are locked out of it.

I was really excited when I heard that the first release candidate of the next generation Internet Explorer 8 is out, and I went ahead and downloaded it.

There were options to download it for Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and 2008, in both x86 and x64 flavours. Hmm, it makes sense for them not to officially support Windows 7 before it is released. Thinking that the closest OS to windows 7 would be Vista, that’s the one I downloaded.

So here’s what the installer told me when I ran it “Internet Explorer 8 is not supported on this operating system”:

IE8-RC1-not-for-Windows-7-(yet)

Hmm, interesting isn’t it? We dedicated guinea pigs of the newest Windows 7 didn’t even get a chance to update our IE8 to the latest! Arguably, we’re still ahead with the version number being 8.0.7000.0 even though that was from way back even before beta 2 came out…

Checking Windows Update didn’t help either – no updates for Windows 7 to download. Rather disappointing.

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categories Microsoft, Software | | datetime 19 Mar 2009 19:15

  • http://www.wamsp.com.au Luke

    Microsoft already publicly said they want Win 7 beta testers to specifically test Win 7 features (ie not focus on IE8) so they left it out.

  • jeff_windows_team

    Hello Edmund-
    My name is Jeff and I work with the Windows Outreach Team. I came across your blog post here and thought I would add some commentary on the matter that Microsoft has released this morning since the release of IE8 (the final version):
    “Windows 7 Beta already includes a pre-release candidate version of Internet Explorer 8 that is optimized for that release. Windows 7 enables unique features and functionality in Internet Explorer 8 including Windows Touch and Jump Lists which require additional product tests to ensure we are providing the best Windows experience for our customers. We will continue to update the version of Internet Explorer 8 running on Windows 7 as the development cycles of Windows 7 progress and plan to include the final version of Internet Explorer 8 in the release candidate version of Windows 7 later this year.”
    Cheers,
    Jeff
    Windows Outreach Team

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